WA health spend tops 'unsustainable' $9bln

A review has been launched into WA's health system to rein in spending.

An inquiry has begun into Western Australia's health system to control a massive blowout in costs in which more than half of every new dollar spent since 2013-14 has gone into the department.

The health budget has almost tripled to $9 billion in the past decade, representing 30 per cent of the entire state spend, and if not addressed would eventually consume the entire budget, Premier Mark McGowan said.

It is also 20 per cent above the national average for public hospital services, which WA Director-General of Health David Russell-Weisz has previously blamed on an inefficient department bureaucracy.

Former NSW Director-General of Health Robyn Kruk will lead the Sustainable Health Review that is due to report by March.

Since being elected in March, the McGowan government has been preparing West Australians for sharp rises in bills, fees and charges to deal with a record $3 billion budget deficit and debt tipped to peak at $42 billion.

But tackling the rising costs of running the state's hospitals and other health services represents a far greater amount of money.

"Unless you are delivering some savings and efficiencies around 30 per cent of the overall cost and structure of the state budget, you are not going to be able to make the necessary changes in order to rescue the state finances," Health Minister Roger Cook said.

WA's health workers are the best paid in Australia, and former treasurer Mike Nahan last year said the elevated wages for nurses, doctors, teachers and orderlies - linked to the mining boom - were "30 to 40 per cent" of the cause of rising costs.

The McGowan government is capping pay rises for public servants at $1000 a year, although doctors have negotiated a better 1.5 per cent deal that still has two years to run.

Mr Cook said the review was not about cutting the health budget or employee wages, but ensuring value for money in how resources were allocated.

The head of the Australian Medical Association in WA, Omar Khorshid, backed the review if it meant writing a new plan for how the health system should look within 10 years.

That included sensitive discussions about "what services you want to provide to which patients" in an ageing society with limited funds.

"Although the budget has tripled, we certainly don't have triple the number of beds, we don't have triple the numbers of doctors and we don't have triple the number of nurses," he told reporters.

"What we do seem to have is a tripling in the size of the bureaucracy that runs health."

WA health statistics:

* Costs up from $3 billion to $9 billion in past decade

* Population tipped to increase from 2.4 million to 3.2 million in next decade